Ralph Steele is the founder and guiding teacher of Life Transition Meditation Center in Santa Fe, where he teaches somatic meditation and other practices geared toward supporting people through major life changes. Steele grew up on Pawleys Island, where he was raised by his grandparents after his father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. As a teenager he moved with his mother to Japan, where his exposure to martial arts sparked a lifelong fascination with practices of embodiment. Eventually, after serving in the Vietnam War, Steele ended up practicing meditation as a way of coping with trauma and addiction.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Steele to talk about his remarkable life story, including the dharma lessons he learned from his grandmother, Sister Mary, how meditation helped him learn to sit in the fire of pain, and how he adapts Buddhist teachings in the retreats he has been leading for veterans.
Read more about Ralph Steele in his 1999 Tricycle article, “In the Lineage of Sister Mary.”
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Coming Home to Ourselves
Brother Phap Huu is a senior teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh’s international community and the abbot of Plum Village in southwest France. In his new book, Calm in the Storm: Zen Ways to Cultivate Stability in an Anxious World, which he co-wrote with Jo Confino, he lays out a compassionate guide for coming home to ourselves and meeting the challenges of our time with greater presence and resilience.
In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Brother Phap Huu to discuss what it means to come home to the present moment, the forces that take us away from a sense of home, how we can let go of stories that no longer serve us, and how we can tap into a deeper sense of community and belonging. Plus, Brother Phap Huu leads a guided meditation.
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Naturalistic Buddhism with Gil Fronsdal
Gil Fronsdal is a dharma teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California, and at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre. He has practiced extensively in the Soto Zen and Theravada Buddhist traditions, and he draws from both traditions in his framing of what he calls naturalistic Buddhism.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Fronsdal to discuss what he means by naturalistic Buddhism, how we can train ourselves in what we want to become, and how the practice of naturalistic Buddhism can help us become free.
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Liberation Through Non-Clinging Across Buddhist Traditions with Joseph Goldstein
Joseph Goldstein is a cofounder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. He recently wrote an article called “Liberation Through Non-Clinging Across Buddhist Traditions” that will be published on Tricycle’s website later this month.
In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Goldstein to discuss why he sees non-clinging as so central across Buddhist traditions, how dual and nondual awareness can complement and support each other, the dangers of becoming attached to emptiness, and how selflessness can offer a radically unique way of understanding ourselves and the world.
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Remembering Joanna Macy with Jess Serrante
Jess Serrante is a climate activist, organizer, and longtime facilitator of the Work That Reconnects, a global movement and community created by the late environmental activist Joanna Macy, who passed away in July. Last year, Jess and Joanna produced a podcast together called We Are the Great Turning that explored Joanna’s teachings on cultivating courage and connection as we face the many crises of our time.
In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Jess to discuss Joanna’s life and legacy, why Joanna believed that we should always begin with gratitude, how we can work productively with anger and despair, what it means to bow to our pain, and how the Work That Reconnects can break us open—and break us free. Plus, Jess leads a guided meditation on connecting with our gratitude for the Earth.
Tricycle Talks: Listen to Buddhist teachers, writers, and thinkers on life's big questions. Hosted by James Shaheen, editor in chief of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the leading Buddhist magazine in the West. Life As It Is: Join James Shaheen with co-host Sharon Salzberg and learn how to bring Buddhist practice into your everyday life. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review creates award-winning editorial, podcasts, events, and video courses. Unlock access to all this Buddhist knowledge by subscribing to the magazine at tricycle.org/join